FinTech giants Vestwell and Riskalyze announced a new joint offering at the Fearless Investing Summit in Lake Tahoe on Thursday.
The targeted team effort they dubbed Riskalyze Retirement Solutions allows advisors to access a new version of Vestwell’s retirement planning portal on the Riskalyze platform.
“The deep partnership will put Vestwell, the industry’s first fiduciary-backed retirement platform for the financial advisor community, and Riskalyze, the industry’s leading risk alignment platform, in the hands of financial advisors to better service employers and investors everywhere,” according to the companies.
Advisors will be able to log into the Riskalyze platform to generate 401(k) proposals and onboard clients electronically. In addition, 401(k) plan participants will have access to pinpoint their own “Risk Number” to help them get matched with the right asset allocation.
In addition to Vestwell’s 3(38) investment management services, the new platform will include access to several of the asset managers in Riskalyze’s Autopilot Partner Store.
“This will give advisors, plan sponsors and plan participants access to additional investment strategies, while still allowing Vestwell to assume ERISA 3(16) fiduciary responsibility on behalf of advisors and plan sponsors.”
Overall, the new joint offering will allow advisors to clearly document their alignment and compliance with the pending DOL fiduciary rule, and demonstrate that they are acting in the best interests of plan participants.
Users of the joint offering will have access to the following features:
- Operational Efficiency: The integration will remove an advisor’s administrative burden to sell, implement, and service retirement plans while handling both the HR participant notification process and the 5500 tax filing on the advisor’s behalf.
- Holistic Planning: Riskalyze’s risk alignment platform will now enable advisors to offer an end-to-end digital 401(k) experience built around the Risk Number, by integrating risk assessment, goal analysis and asset allocation into Vestwell’s innovative experiences for advisors, plan sponsors and plan participants.
- Scalability: By offering flexible, bundled or unbundled investment and fiduciary services, the digital platform will enable advisors to scale their business without heavy operational cost or burden. The platform does this by leveraging administrative services and fiduciary services as needed.
- Enhanced Client Experience: With a streamlined and simple digital portal, advisors will be able to control the delivery of their client experience. By allowing advisors to deliver a consistent experience through an open-architecture, multi-custodian, multi-record-keeper platform, the platform will equip advisors to seamlessly guide clients in choosing investing strategies based on their individual needs while automatically rebalancing portfolios.
The integration will be available later this year. Riskalyze and Vestwell will be hosting joint webinars to help educate and train advisors using the platform.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
